A Lesson on Revenge Ajan Ngoen was born in 1890 in the Village of Grandma Hom’s Knoll in Nakhon Pathom, a province about sixty kilometers west of Bangkok. Ngoen’s father was a farmer and herbal doctor who taught him mantras and medicine from palm-leaf texts. In 1910 Ngoen (which means “silver”) was ordained as a

A New Translation of the Buddhist Classic Who will master this world And the realms of Yama and the gods? Who will select a well‑taught Dharma teaching, As a skilled person selects a flower? One in training will master this world And the realms of Yama and the gods. One in training will select A

Sacred Are the Trees: A Retelling of Ancient Stories from Biographies of the Buddha by Wendy Garling, author of Stars at Dawn Why Trees? Those familiar with the Buddha’s biography know that all major events in his life took place under trees. He was born under a shala tree (shorea robusta), for example, as his

By Sanje Phillips This July, I attended the Nyingma Summer Seminar at the Mangala Shri Bhuti retreat land in Ward, Colorado, with Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche, Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel (wife), and Dungse Jampal Norbu (son). Over one hundred attendees with varied demographics sat daily meditation sessions, participated in the teachings, endured periods of silence and the usual

We join our palms and say goodbye to a teacher who had an immense impact on the world. S.N. Goenka was a pioneer in making Vipassana meditation widely available to a secular audience. Over 170 meditation centers have been established around the globe under his auspices. His legacy will resound indefinitely.   29 January 1924

Voices of Insight, edited by Sharon Salzberg This book was actually put together as a benefit project-with the royalties to benefit Ram Dass to help pay his medical bills-but it turned out better than expected. It's basically a digest of American Insight Meditation teachers-some of them appearing in print for the first time before they

Living in the Light of Death: On the Art of Being Truly Alive by Larry Rosenberg Here's a preview of the rest of your life: you're gonna get old and/or sick and you're gonna die. A great remedy for not forgetting that pesky fact is repetition of the Buddhist text known as the Five Subjects